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The Superfluous Man
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John Markley's blog on current politics and political philosophy, from a libertarian perspective. Has commentary on economics, war and peace, the nanny state, law enforcement, and the nature of statism.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'culture and society'
Like maggots to carrion
Ever find yourself in a position where you think most of the people who share your opinion on the proper course of action are utterly repulsive? Watching the response to the arrest of Roman Polanski, as his apologists rally to defend him against the...
Support for Male Survivor
WARNING: The first, third, and fourth links in the first paragraph of this post lead to written descriptions of rape.It's only come up as a post topic on this blog once, because I don't feel qualified to do the subject full justice, but one issue I h...
"Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That\'s good!"
Gene Callahan talks sense on a pet peeve of mine- overuse of the term "hater." It's an obnoxious term not only because it's usually absurdly hyperbolic, but because it frequently carries the implication that anyone who doesn't like whatever the speak...
Manslaughter and other foibles
It's a bit late in the day to write about this, but its been fermenting in the back of my mind ever since the the news coverage of Ted Kennedy's death started. I actually expected Kennedy’s passing to be an even bigger deal than it is, given the A...
Acceptable targets
Gay marriage has been prominent in the news this week, which got me thinking about recent events. Some of you may recall the recent case of Carrie Prejean, a contestant in the Miss USA Pageant. In the course of the pageant, the contestants were ask...
Next, scarification!
Here’s something both amusing and frightening (Hat tip to Billy Beck): there are actually people getting Barrack Obama tattoos. American politics has been getting more messianic since 9/11, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that it’s rea...
Unintended consequences
Writing about the problems that arise when the government intertwines itself with an area of the private economy, in this case medicine, Roderick Long writes: When so much of the health care system has been unnaturally sucked into the federal embrac...
Yes, just like all liberals 'hate America"
A certain pet peeve of my mine has come to the fore a lot lately. Over at the blog Art of the Possible, poster Alix quotes the following from Makani Themba-Nixon: If anyone doubts that racism is alive and well in American politics, the fact that mor...
It never ends...
I was in a fairly good mood until I found this article, via Psychopolitik: Too busy playing video games to watch presidential ads on television? Barack Obama has found you, too, by becoming the first presidential candidate to buy ad space inside a g...
Culture and choice
Will Wilkinson has an excellent post, “The World is Not a Zoo,” on multiculturalism and the desire to force people into certain cultures.The "zoo" metaphor strikes me as a very good one. Actually, on one of Russ Roberts' EconTalk podcasts, Micha...
Cheerleading for rapists
Warning: Please note that the first and third links in this post lead to written descriptions of rape, and may be highly disturbing or upsetting.Over at Pajamas Media, I had the bad fortune to encounter what is probably the most disgusting congregati...
Lapdog of government
There’s something I’d like to add about the subject of my recent Strike the Root article about Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the police. (Short version: MADD is collaborating with law enforcement to tell teenagers their friends have been kil...
New Strike the Root article
I've got a new article up at Strike the Root. Have a look. ...
There's no such thing as a free lunch, which is good if you're trying to lose weight
Now, speaking as someone who is gradually deblobbifying himself, I don’t dispute that it would be better, all other things being equal, if people in America were fitter. Nevertheless, an article at today’s msn.com about the financial benefits of...
THIS is what people finally get outraged over?
This post is angrier and more profane than unusual. The loveably wacky John Markley who writes about hallucinatory spiders and defending a libertarian society from an invasion of malevolent scorpion men is on break for the night.A few days ago, the...
David Brooks, Master of Psychiatry
This is a subject I hadn’t planned on addressing on this blog, but now I feel I must. This sort of brain-dead bigotry and contempt is par for the course on, say, the Something Awful forums, but when it’s printed in The Newspaper of Record it mer...
